Commissioned and supported by the British Council as part of Shakespeare Lives, choreographer James Cousins and his company take Shakespeare’s heroine, the curious and courageous Rosalind, and asks whether women still need to emulate stereotypical masculinity to find equality in our modern world.
Variously played by both male and female dancers, 400 years since Shakespeare wrote As You Like It, Cousins’s Rosalind ventures through the modern metropolis - by day, ordered and traditional, by night, a neon wonderland. She is on a quest for enlightenment, driven by both love and oppression.
Cousins created Rosalind in South Korea over seven weeks last year in collaboration with four dancers, three of whom were local to Seoul, and dramaturge Hejin Jang brought a South Korean female perspective to the proceedings.
Sabrina Mahfouz’s poetry, spoken by Jasmine Blackborow, meshes with Seymour Milton’s score. Lighting design is by Lee Curran and costume design by Insook Choi. For the UK tour, dancers Heejung Kim, Inho Cho and Chihiro Kawasaki are joined by Georges Hann.
The UK première will take place at Djanogly Theatre, Nottingham, 3 March; the London première at The Place, 15 to 18 March 2017.
The production will also visit Canterbury, Taunton, Newbury, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Cambridge and Ipswich.